Thursday, May 02, 2013

I haven't been writing for a while. I think it is the big overhang from the White Paper that incensed Singaporeans and intensified political discussion at all levels of our society. Singaporeans today are much more aware of the challenges in our society than any other point in the last few decades. While the govt tries to fix the problems we have with housing and transport, the real hard problem that our society face is that of inequality. The PAP seem to avoid all the hard decisions on taxes, minimum wage and healthcare - preferring to keep the status quo...but the middle ground is very much eroded.

The problem of severe inequality makes solutions for all other problems harder. Inequality in itself creates an unlevel playing field for Singaporeans and when a large segment find it so hard to overcome their disadvantages they will stop supporting the system...no matter how good your transport system is or what you try to do in public housing.

We have never seen the kind of extremes we see in the wealth distribution today. It is the highest in the developed world (we sometimes share this dubious honour with the United States). A dominant govt like that PAP cannot say it is not due to its policies ....it is clearly an outcome of its policies. Policies that amplify inequalities by continuous pursuit of pro-business policies almost to the point of neglecting the plight of the working class. The PAP now alters its policies to limit foreign labor growth and increase the ratio of Singaporeans in the workplace. But this is a shift from an extreme position and there is only so much it can do because businesses have grown dependent on imported labor. Telling Singaporeans they are "doing something" is not going to satisfy the ordinary working citizen that is fast losing his patience because he senses the PAP govt is unable to make fundamental changes...and perhaps it can't because it has painted itself in the corner by going down the same path for far too long.

Watch the Malaysian election closely because it is going to tell us something. Politicians such as Najib knew he had to make changes when the citizens voted in large numbers for the opposition. He did go ahead to make numerous changes like eliminating the ISA, implementing minimum wages, providing free healthcare for the elderly and he did run the economy relatively well - decent growth and low unemployment. But what he couldn't do was to get rid of cronyism and corruption which Malaysians today simply cannot accept. It remains to be seen if he has done enough but my sources tell me they are heading towards further losses.

Leaders sometimes know that they need to change after they overcome their own denial but underestimate the rate and magnitude of change. I think leaders in Singapore have underestimated the effects of income inequality. From their Ivory Tower they can philosophized and think that people should just accept the extreme inequality as a consequence of their "meritocratic system". This is a mistake. It is an easy mistake to make when you experience the favorable outcomes of the system as an elite showered with opportunities and high wages - you justify your own success as the result of meritocracy and by that token see the failure of others as the result of their lack of ability and effort. But they forget that meritocracy does not exist in isolation - the inequality is amplified by policy choices of our leaders and not just dependent the talents and effort of individuals. Our relatively extreme inequality is simply the result of extreme policies adopted by the PAP govt....and the PAP govt has made no fundamental changes to move from its extreme.

Because the parties in the opposition coalition Pakatan Rakyat are not really that compatible except on the surface.

So Malaysians are worried if Pakatan come to power it will be worse than Barisan Nasional led by Najib.

Similarly in Singapore, PAP will still win in 2016 because 60% think best alternative WP is still not ready to be government. And even their leader Low Thia Khiang also honestly admitted WP are not ready. Which is true, just by observing them and the other oppositions.

Good that you are back again after some break. With the further limit on foreign labor growth (no minimum wage yet), employers should now see that they had taken advantage/ abused the system for too long by just enriching their own kind.

For employers that are way above high profit, workers need to be rewarded with at least half-to-one month bonus. For workers that are way below market rate, employers need to give a minimum 5% salary increase to at least offset inflation cost.

Good to have you back.The current sorry state of our country is because G policies favour those people who have money. Landlords are making more money that the average hardworking citizens. When such things happen, more and more people will just go buy a property and collect rent rather than do an honest day's work.

We need to change this mindset or in the longer term, Singapore will be doomed.

Change can only come from the people and not from PAP. I eagerly awaits GE2016, and I hope my sacred vote will change this govt.

I am also watching Malaysia election very closely because how voters vote in Malaysia will be quite symbolic to how Singaporeans should vote in GE2016. In fact, BN has did much better than PAP and if BN can longer sustain its power, PAP should jolly well vanish from Singaoreans' sight.

Singaporeans should also look up to Malaysian voters that fear of toppling their corrupted govt is no longer an option.

/// Leaders sometimes know that they need to change after they overcome their own denial but underestimate the rate and magnitude of change. ///

Exactly. As was the case of high ministerial pay. After years of denial, they knew they had to do something, and yet the outcome was token cuts.

This high ministerial pay is going to be the albatross on their neck until they do drastic cuts to bring it down to decent levels. The high pay is the six degrees of separation for whatever unhappiness that the hoi polloi has.

The G used tripartism to screw the workers. When FTs were flooding the workplace, NUTC did not know or if it did, it did nothing to stop it. Its chief seems only to bother with his feel rich monthly perusal of his CPF statement, basking in his multimillion dignity bestowed with taxpayers' money. Other than that, he does not have a portfolio.

Hope that people will get wiser from your writing and stop voting for dominating ruling party that twisted facts and presented half truths. I still feel many singaporeans especially those doing well are deeply brainwashed by pap.

Glad to see you are back. You are one of the most insightful socio-political bloggers in Singapore, if not the most. For a time, I thought you were critically sick or the authorities have issued some scary warning to you. Great to know the truth is none of them.

“Nowadays, anyone who wishes to combat lies and ignorance and to write the truth must overcome at least five difficulties. He must have the courage to write the truth when truth is everywhere opposed; the keenness to recognize it, although it is everywhere concealed; the skill to manipulate it as a weapon; the judgment to select those in whose hands it will be effective; and the running to spread the truth among such persons.”― Bertolt Brecht, Galileo

Re anonymous' comment: "The current sorry state of our country is because G policies favour those people who have money. Landlords are making more money that the average hardworking citizens. When such things happen, more and more people will just go buy a property and collect rent rather than do an honest day's work."

You mean capital is allocated to secure rentier rights, rather than to more productive uses, e.g. buying machines, technology, improving work processes, funding research and innovation, etc?

Capitalists are not all rentiers - but the highest returns on capital in today's world are seeking rents. The returns per dollar on seeking rent (especially in the speculative short term) is better than the returns per dollar on investing in real productive economic activity. Naturally, capital gets allocated to seeking rent!

This is partly the case because governments have become more amenable and pliable to big money's interests. Because money is power, and concentrated wealth is concentrated power - and clearly undemocratic!

Another problem is that as people get poorer, as the middle class disappears, there is just less consumption - which maybe isn't a bad thing in itself, given climate change and all that - but it does mean that the economy (especially the real, non-rent, non-speculative bits) will begin to contract as people consume less.

And as the economy contracts - well, everyone loses, but for some, losing just means having less wealth, while for others losing can mean bleak lives, shattered futures, and even be matters of life and death.

At the end of the day - our society still lacks the political will to care for people, for human beings. We still worship money, make money the raison d'etre of our existence. There are questions of economic efficiency, and questions of ethics and philosophy. We're tunnel visioning on the one, and missing out on the other.

@Michelle - thanks for reference to the paper - but the elites of the world have never acknowledged good science, while mis-using "bad" science, c.f. using Reinhart and Rogoff to support austerity in Europe and US. Same thing is happening in Singapore as well - academic evidence and justification for public policy are post-hoc, cherry-picked affairs. Just ask Donald Low.

Malaysia call to its citizens to 'ga-ga" change government. Singaporeans should get ready for this, especially with the spurious case after the review is done on AIMgate. The team was led by none other than ex-ISD director Benny Lim who led the Operation Spectrum in the old days. You would be really daft if you can trust 10% of the findings.

"But then why 60% people, or human beings or Sinkies rather, has the political will to vote PAP every election?"

Well, this is such a big question! My take (broadly) is:

1. People are not informed about citizenship, society, politics - people do not know of or believe there are good alternatives to a PAP-dominated Singapore. They do not understand well what effects policies have on them.

2. Maybe some people in Singapore don't have a strong sense of local community. In short, people are selfish, have small social circles, and cannot imagine the community cooperating and helping each other. There is lack of trust and solidarity across and between Singaporeans.

3.Partly all of the above can be ascribed to Singapore's political climate and history (endless number of things here - climate of fear, gerrymandering, control of press, ISA, compliant judiciary used for political purposes, politicisation of everything from grassroots to town councils i.e. municipal management, communal-based policies heightening race-consciousness, etc ad infinitum et nauseum) - people won't have what wasn't built, or was crushed. What doesn't get nurtured, will not flourish.

Democracy isn't maintenance-free. There is a cost to democracy. If people don't want to put in time to be informed, to take precious time off to do politics (by joining political parties, joining non-party-political grassroots, joining civil society, NGOs, by talking to their MPs), then democracy will be fragile if it even exists. But it is worthwhile isn't it? Democracy costs, but the benefits far outweigh the costs.

The politicians may not be the creme de-la creme they claim themselves to be, but if one assumes they are open-minded and truly "pragmatic", it is unlikely they do not recognize the serious consequences or economic drag of inequality. Rather , it is far easier to believe that the personal advantages of being a crony and preserving the current unequal system are driving them to adopt a political ideology based on the Thatcherite system of "no welfare, destroy labour" or Reagan-style of "pro-business, starve the government". If I were already drawing a million dollars based on nothing more than my A level results and 2 interviews for a government scholarship (even though there were at least 1000 others every year with equal or better A level results than I), I would willingly subscribe to a political ideology backed by enough voodoo economics theory that would preserve my cushy job. Why should I undo all the policies of people before me, which made me become part of the elite? Why should I accept pay-cuts and allow the poorest 10$=% to have free medical or lower housing? Easier to find an economic justification that preaches "free market is the panacea for all" right? Status quo would be just fine. That is why the problem is far more insidious than Malaysia's of ridding corruption - because every father mother's son in government and public service are coming together to defend the status quo, its not one or a small group of cronies, its at least 2 generations of PAP and civil servants all defending the status quo. Its a system-wide problem. That is why you have incompetence at so many areas like housing health transport immigration, AIM, Brompton, SCDF, CNB, CPIB, RC commitee members, bankers, etc etc.

Ready or not we will be voting oppositions in to replace the PAPigs because we simply have enough of those porkers to last us a lifetime. NO MORE!

Low Thia Kiang, there's no need to be keh kee where politics is concerned. Even if you and your party are not ready, so what? The pigs were not ready in 1959 with their rag-tag team of barbers and ji-chiong-fan women and an occasional unemployed lawyer. But they went in nonetheless and learned along the way and came out smelling roses, at least for a time.

So don't worry too much about the nuts and bolts of government. When you are given the chance in 2016, do not hesitate. Charge right in, we Singaporeans are behind you all the way. There will be the inevitable mistakes and goofs, but which brand new government does not experience all those things? Even the 50plus year old PAPaya government is susceptible to such things, more and more often as the years go by, it would seem.

So take heart, Low Thia Kiang, tell us Singaporeans including the PAPigs that you are here to be counted and that you and your Workers' Party are in the fight to take over the government of Singapore and in the process you intend to kick the PAPigs asses right off the map of Singapore!!!

It is only fair to say that the best outcome for any election is to have power share by different parties so that no party can have monopoly of power. There is also absolutely no rocking of the boat just because no party has got 2/3 majority.

What kind of problem or chaos coukd result from a multi-parties formed government? Sinkies are simply kiasu and kiasi, getting themselves into all kind of imagined problem and trouble.

If the people feel screwed by the leaders they have chosen, they deserve to be screwed, what else?

Whether oppositions ready or not, vote in as many of them as possible, even if they are cartoons. The aim is to have the papigs taken out of power. Once they are out, those voted in will have a new slate to start with and that is the desired outcome.

Welcome back Lucky....or should I say "Lucky you are back" cos I missed your writing. Once again a spot on piece.The result for the malaysian polls will get interesting tonight. BN will go all out to win it...even if it means cheating.

"Inequality in itself creates an unlevel playing field for Singaporeans and when a large segment find it so hard to overcome their disadvantages they will stop supporting the system...no matter how good your transport system is or what you try to do in public housing."

This is a winning statement. It describes precisely why I won't be voting PAP in the next election.

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